Chapter 74: Disappearing lifespan
A couple of meters away, a girl with a head full of blonde hair was kowtowing, her expression determined.
Sigh! The woman sighed as she stood up. Once again, she had broken the promise she made to herself: to stop taking on new disciples.
"Emilia, I hope you've thought this through before making your decision. Once we leave this place, there's no turning back," the woman said, gazing into the distance, her voice slow and sonorous.
The next day...
David sat cross-legged in his room at the Lime Green Inn. The sun had not yet risen, and it was still dark outside.
Inside his Spiritual Space, David looked around, frowning at the changes he observed.
The liquified mana within his spiritual sea had started to gain color, with occasional greyish spots appearing here and there.
This was a good sign, but it wasn't what worried him.
The spiritual space of a peak Foundation Building Realm cultivator was typically about one kilometer long. David's, however, had already expanded to five kilometers—five times that of an average cultivator. Moreover, David could feel that this wasn't his limit.
And therein lay the problem.
How was he supposed to break through to the Golden Core Realm if his spiritual space continued to grow?
According to standard practice, a cultivator would only attempt to break through to the next realm once their spiritual space had stopped growing and stabilized.
Forming a Golden Core was an incredibly difficult task, requiring a cultivator to fuse all the laws they had comprehended into a single entity and merge it with their Crystallization of Life.
This process provided nutrients to the Crystallization of Life, helping it grow further. During this process, some unranked Crystallizations of Life might evolve into higher grades—Uncommon might become Earthly King, and Earthly King might evolve into Sky King, and so on.
The process was highly complex, energy-intensive, and put immense pressure on the spiritual space. If the space wasn't stable enough, it could collapse.
For this reason, cultivators would grow their spiritual space to its extreme and only attempt the breakthrough after the space had stabilized.
While David was pondering all these things, the sun began to rise, bringing with it the same dreadful feeling, stronger than ever before.
The wave of energy disappeared as quickly as it had come.
However, this time, David realized what he was losing.
The truth became even more apparent when he looked at his status report.
[Name: David Well-wisher.]
Lifespan: 21/199.
Spiritual Space: 5.4 kilometers.
Laws:
Thunder (0.009%) Infant Form.
Wind (0.007%) Infant Form.
Fire (0.008%) Infant Form.
Greater Law of Annihilation (0.0002%) Infant Form.
Cultivation: Foundation Building Realm Rank 1.
Cultivation Technique: Purple Thunder, Ancient Dragospider Diagram.
Crystallization of Life:
Bank of Eternal Origin.
Domain of Zenith Sovereign.
Master Sharpshooter.
Demon of Fate.
Remark: Congratulations on your successful breakthrough, but please don't forget about the bank. Quickly find a suitable place to establish a branch.]
David sucked in a cold breath.
He had lost one year from his total lifespan.
All this time, he had been losing precious years of his life without even realizing it.
He might not have realized it until he had nothing left. Or, if he had realized it, it might have been too late.
If he lost a year every day like this, he wouldn't survive beyond 150 days.
David's face turned dark as he hurriedly got up from his seated position and walked outside his room.
Others must have felt the changes too; after all, losing a year was no small matter.
As if they shared the same thoughts, they all came out of their rooms at the same time.
Even the stone-faced Ruby wore an ugly expression.
There was no need to anything about Sebastian and Mary.
Before anyone could speak, a sudden, ear-piercing scream filled with fright echoed from the lower floors.
David instantly recognized the voice; it was the receptionist.
He exchanged a glance with the others before hurrying downstairs, his body flashing like lightning as he moved.
The lower floor was in complete chaos, with people yelling and shouting at one another. The receptionist was nowhere to be seen.
"What did you mix in the food, you bastards?" a middle-aged man shouted furiously.
"My brother was completely fine a moment ago. How could he suddenly die?" he roared, smashing his fist onto a nearby table, turning it into powder.
David looked at the motionless bodies lying on the ground and quickly connected the dots.
These people hadn't been able to survive after losing a year of their lifespan in an instant.
In the next moment, Mary and the others arrived.
Suddenly, the furious man turned his gaze toward David.
"Are you the owner of this place?" the man asked in a hoarse voice.
David shook his head, feeling pitiful for the man.
"Don't lie to me, you bastard!" Rage clouded the man's mind as he needed someone to vent his anger on.
In the next moment, the man's body flashed, and he launched a kick at David's head.
Slap!
However, before his kick could even touch David's body, his leg was grabbed by someone and in the next moment he was thrown to the side.
Crash!
The man crashed onto the wall and fell down on the ground unmoving.
"Thank-you Sebastian." David looked at Sebastian and thanked him. Although, he really didn't need his help.
"Let's talk." David pointed at the one of the tables which was still intact and moved toward it.
The other guys followed him and sat down one by one, their expression grim.
"What do you think about the situation." David looked at the three of them, and asked in a low voice.